small business

Thomas Petty, Founder and President of the Bay Area Search Engine Academy, will be talking about how local businesses can best utilize Google Places on Monday, March 28 at the Silicon Valley Pad in Menlo Park. The evening begins at 6:30 pm with networking; the presentation starts at 7:00 pm, followed by questions at 8:30 pm.

Here’s what you’ll learn, according to the promotional material: “Local SEO expert Thomas Petty will reveal the secrets of placing your listing in Google Places in such a way that it will outrank your competitors. Google looks at certain factors to determine how to rank similar businesses. Tom will reveal what those factors are, and teach how to craft a listing that shows at or near the top of Google’s results. You’ll learn simple, non-techie things you can do yourself to improve your ranking. We’ll also look at live examples of Google Places listings from audience members and give tips on how to improve them.”